Not Too Far From Home

spill the tea, sis (#4)

A/N 1-4-19: Before starting, I just want to mention that NTFFH is now on Ao3! (And Wattpad, as you can see.) If you prefer reading there, it's under the same title and under the "Arbirchy" pseud. Thanks! And now, back to your regularly scheduled fic.

A/N 5-30-19: Also! I'm back from a long-ass hiatus, so I can hopefully post chapters regularly now!

#4 - spill the tea, sis

Writing Key -
+1 = a day in advance

Horizontal Line = scene change

Lucas tried to sputter out a reaction to Barry's ignorance, but instead, a series of "uh"'s and "I-"'s came out. He sighed. "I mean, I'll teach you if you want."

Barry looked at Lucas. "I mean, uh, sure. That'd be great, actually." He was still shocked, almost paralyzed even, from Dawn and Lucas' apprehensiveness.

Lucas laughed. "I mean, it's normal for beginner trainers to not know how to catch a Pokemon. Come on!" Lucas lifted Barry by his hand, pausing to talk to Dawn. "You don't mind if-"

Dawn nodded with a yes and gave Barry a threatening look. Barry sighed, and turned back to cross the road to the open grass.

"So first we need to find a Pokemon. Let's see..." Lucas was already hard at work scouting out a Pokemon, when a Starly flew by and landed in the tall grass next to Barry.

Barry crouched over, looking at the brown bird-like Pokemon and smiled. "Aww, you're cute. Can we keep it?"

"Well, yeah... but you have to catch it. With one of these." Lucas handed over a glossy red-white ball over to the boy. "It's a Pokeball. You just tap it here, and hopefully it will stay in. Otherwise..."

Barry touched the ball's protruding element onto the bird, and it clicked. "It clicked?" the boy thought. The bird quickly turned into a blue wisp of smoke that vaporized inside the ball. The ball fell to the ground as soon as the exchange was done, wiggling with uncertainty. "1, 2, 3, 4 wiggles so far," Barry muttered. "Come on... Catch it!" The ball glowed after a few seconds. "It stopped. Is that... normal?"

"I..." He blanked out for a few seconds, pondering Barry's accomplishment. "Yes! That is normal- you learn really fast, Barry!" he laughed. "I remember I took the longest to catch a Pokemon out of my group, that my dad just felt sorry for me and gave me my Chikorita." He instinctively took it out from his Pokeball and the green Pokemon immediately nuzzled in between his forearm and armpit. "Today I can catch Pokemon with ease, but... I feel like me and Chikorita have a bond like no other. You and that Starly can do great things- it's no wonder my dad said you were an excellent practical achiever."

Lucas smiled at Barry, which made him feel like a warm, cozy fire inside. However, he managed to compose himself in front of his crush and said a simple "Thank you, Lucas!"

All of a sudden, the boys turned to a car and Dawn's face. "Hey, guys! Our taxi is here to take us to Canalave! Hurry up!" They walked over to the black car, Lucas getting in the front seat and the two teenagers in the backseat. Free candy for this trip too? Lucas couldn't believe his eyes. Ride sharing services were mediocre in Johto.

"Thanks, Dawn," Lucas said, happy for the free ride. "Is this quality ride sharing service normal?"

"It is, Lucas. Me and Bar over here used to ride to school everyday in one of these. This is normal quality over here."

"Normal quality?!?" Lucas looked surprisedly at the girl behind him. "Back in Johto, the cars we would use were some old 1980's style cars just to hitch a ride to the mall. This is fancy."